Before the Great Fire of 1666

Francis Bacon

On this day in 1618, Francis Bacon was made Lord Chancellor of England by James I.

Bacon was something of a Renaissance Man, a “natural philosopher” (what we would now call a scientist) and philosopher as well as a lawyer and statesman. He was one of those instrumental in the creation of the colonies in the Americas, and set out his egalitarian vision of how things should be there in his book “New Atlantis”.

He is commemorated by a statue in Gray’s Inn, where he received his legal training. Both he and his father Nicholas, as sometime Lords Keeper of the Great Seal, once lived in York House, not far from Whitehall. Francis also once lived in Canonbury House in Islington (see here).

Gray’s Inn is visited on our “Legal London” themed special. The site of York House is visited both on our “St Paul’s to Westminster Abbey” standard walk and on our “Legal London” themed special.

Further details of all our walks are available in the “Guided Walks” section of this web-site.